The making of Anokye, the truth of Destiny TV series, Prt 3 (prt 1 & 2 are yet to be written)

In May our concept artist Colin Williams came over from the UK to Ghana for 6 weeks, to soak himself in Ghanaian culture sites and sounds before embarking on a drawing and painting marathon. He was painting right up to the hour before we had to leave for the airport.


We took a tour of Anokye relevant sites in Asante and Akuapem. 


We visited Kumasi, went to the sword site, Manhyia Place, Besease Shrine house and the KNUST’s botanical gardens because it’s got a river / stream / brook that Anokye created for some people that he and Osei Tutu moved there after the war with Denkyira. Then we went to Aburi to see the magnificent   giant shrine outside the palace. (At first we were not sure if it was a sculpture or a Shrine) before getting to Awukugua to see the home of Anokye and Nana Yaw the priest who now lives there.

 As soon as we came back work began. Colin drew lots of ink drawings of various spaces, then worked up some of the settings. We talked loads about the visual language of  Ghana of Ghana and what we want for the film.

We went to art galleries and looked the history of visual art in Ghana and in the end a theme of constant movement and texture rose to the surface. Colin felt that a particular style of wax batik best expressed that. I love Colins back grounds so much that we decided not to try and copy the style digitally, but to use hand painted backgrounds. The first time I saw characters moving in Colin's settings I just wanted to cry. The results were stunning! unfortunetly I can't show any  of that until the launch in November.

Anokye's brook is behind a cathedral of giant bamboo and is the most beautiful place. And there is a giant Silk Cotton tree there. (The hand of Anokye is everywhere)


We bumped into an old man fishing in water that appeared to be too shallow, but he said that he fished there all the time.

Colin left us with a mountain of drawings and painting that brought to life the world in which the story would take place. 

Then work began on the characters. we  had early workings out of characters from artists like Jennifer Lewis, Drew Sinclair, Victor Opeyokun and Gareth Nash and others in the UK.  


Francis Brown aka Animax Brown, Hanson Akatti, the Black Monk and Nana Hene Kudoah all got the photo packs of the people the characters are based on.  The biggest thing as per always when working with artists is getting the style that feels right for the story you want to tell. 

Hanson drew all the heads, then Black and Nana Hene drew the bodies. the colour was done by Hanson and Black. We ended up with 2 styles of painting because Hanson uses a graphics tablet and Black uses a mouse. I'll post a video of Hanson discussing his favorite character.

The whole process took about a month Brown and Hanson moved in for a while and worked what seemed like round the clock at times, with Black sometimes camping out on the sofa. Sleep was a prised a commodity in thoes days and I think all of us got Maleria at different times because of over tiredness.  Seren (my son) kept us entertained and loved every minute of having so many artists around. Brown drew and painted all the props. I'll post a short video of him discussing that process soon.

All the time this was going on I was finallising the   script and so the layout begun. Brown worked tirelessly on this, while I began to recruit animators. I am so pleased that we have a girl on the team again 

The storyboard was drawn by Selom. We had a great day at the start of that process when we started to time and act out the actions. I'll post a video on that soon.

We are due to show the whole process from photo to moving character soon on TV to the person that character is based on . I'll post the video on here all about that after we go on the program.

thanks!